Chapter 25

All was dust. It was in the sword’s nose, his mouth. His head was ringing.

People were yelling all around, and though the summoning circle in the sky had vanished, the [wizards] were still spraying lightning from their staves , the booms periodically eclipsing all other sound.

Battle hadn’t used to be so loud. He was sure. Maybe it had to do with his having ears now.

He should…get up. Probably.

“Nick, we gotta go. Nick?”

He knew that voice.

He liked that voice.

His wielder? No, he didn’t have one of those.

“Who are you?”

“Why are you being so loud?”

Was someone else speaking?

Or…was that his own voice?

The sounds of the battle were fading. That seemed like a bad sign.

Everything was turning blue.

A familiar blue. The blue of status.

“Hello!!!”

“I know you can hear me.”

“What’s going on?”

“Can you tell them to turn it down? I’m trying to sleep here.”

He was somewhere else now.

A dark room, a faint blue light shining from above him.

“Where am I?” The sword asked, his voice echoing in the now silent air. He was standing on a white tile floor, its edges obscured by the darkness that made it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of him.

“The Starting Area. Much quieter here, and we won’t be interrupted.”

The Starting Area. He’d heard some of his classmates talk about it. An in-between place they’d gone to before they’d been sent on to their new world.

A place, the sword understood, where his classmates had met a [God].

“Uh,” the sword said, “Are you [God]?”

“Am I God?”

“What a ridiculous question to ask.“

“Do I look like God to you?”

“Except…hey…wait a second.”

“I don’t seem to have like, hands. Not here at least.”

“And, hmmm, I do have hands in the other place.”

“I’m in two places at once.”

“That’s a bit unusual isn’t it?”

There was a long silence.

“Hey, am I [God]?”

The sword scratched at the back of his head. He had seen Cadmarius do it recently when the sword had asked him about the fastest way to get his friends to stop talking to him. It shouldn’t have helped, but for some reason, it seemed like the thing to do.

“I’m…really not qualified to answer that question.” The sword said. Then, an idea occurred to him. “Have you checked status?”

“Status! Of course! What kind of idiot wouldn’t check status before…

“What’s Status?”

“Just…try saying Status,” the sword said.

“Status status status status.”

“Em, hold on a sec, here it is.”

“Hey look at that, I’m a [god]. Not the [God of Earth] I guess, but well, gee. Wow. I don’t mind telling you, I’m a little surprised.”

“Guess that explains all the like chains and seals and covering my body.”

“Got to admit, I’m a little flattered. My mom used to say for some people any attention is good attention and I never really got what she was saying, but now—”

“Look, sorry,” the sword interrupted. “But are you…were you human and then you…”

“Got dumped into the Pantheon. It’s all starting to come back to me. I think I’m waking up.”

The blue lights pulsed.

“Crossroads, eh.”

“Not sure about all these seals and chains and stuff.”

“I would absolutely murder for a pizza.”

“No pizza in the Pantheon you know, not even for [Titans]. It always made me a bit depressed. Like, what’s the point of near omnipotence if there isn’t any pizza?”

The white tiled floor roiled beneath the sword, and he fell onto his backside with a painful thump.

The blue light went out.

The sword waited, it was something he was good at, although he was becoming impatient. He hoped that Arthur and Mei were both alright.

“I’m waking up. I don’t really want to wake up.”

The voice was back, but it sounded somber, older than it had before.

“It’s because of all the noise. Can you make them stop?”

“No. But the school will make it stop soon.” The sword said. Then, it occurred to him that lying might be the better choice. By then it was too late to take his answer back though.

“Why won’t you make it stop?”

“I have no wielder,” the sword said.

“Do boys need wielders now?”

The blue light returned, and with it came the uncomfortable feeling of fingers flicking inside of the sword’s head.

Like there was a book in there, and someone was skimming through it, every page scraping against the side of his skull.

“Oh. I see. Yes. No wielder. My, you’re a stubborn one, aren’t you? Didn’t your mom ever tell you it’s better to give a little to get a little?

“You don’t remember her. I see, I see. Well hey, I can be your wielder, temporarily anyway. Unlocking skills is kind of most of what [Gods] do. I don’t really think this should be too different.”

The sword…considered.

He needed a wielder.

He didn’t have one.

A [God] had promised him help.

Did he understand what that meant?

He often didn’t understand things.

Was he really going to say no?

“You don’t have a body,” the sword observed. “How can you be a wielder?”

“Oh, details,” the [God] said dismissively. “I wouldn’t be much of a [God] if I couldn’t run rings around a little skill requirement like that. Even reduced as I am. That’s the easy stuff. Most of being a [God] turns out to be about control of the skill tree, it turns out. Kind of crazy right? You’d think it would be less…mundane somehow.”

Well.

As long as he didn’t lose control, it shouldn’t be too bad.

“Do it.” The sword said.

“Yay!”

In all his long years, the sword had never once heard a wielder say such a thing the first time they picked up the sword. No time to ponder that further, as he was back in the dust and rubble of the balcony. Everything hurt. His neck felt especially stiff for some reason.

But his mind stayed focused. He staggered to his feet.

“We gotta go!” Arthur shouted across at him. Mei was already scrabbling towards the doors.

“Get inside!” The sword said. “I’ve got this.”

He turned, hoping to find the enemy close, and was not disappointed. One of the [Wizards] had apparently seen them, and was trying to pick them off.

A thin lizardman skidded towards him, staff raised in front of them. When they were close enough, they halted, and shot a spray of lightning bolts in the sword’s direction.

The sword waited.

The ball of lightning swelled.

“Hey uh, aren’t you going to do something?”

“No,” the sword said, joyfully, “that’s the wielder’s job.”

“Ohhhhh. Huh. Ok. Uh. Gee. You know, I’ve never had a sword before. Not really something you need, when, you know, when you’re an omnipotent being of light.”

“Welp, shadow step, I suppose.”

Shadow step was one of the sword’s most used wielder skills. It allowed the wielder to teleport to nearby shadows instantly, in its most advanced forms, the shadows didn’t even have to be close by.

It usually took a few tries to make it a smooth motion. People weren’t used to the sudden change in perspective that accompanied the change in location.

The sword knew all this, but still, he was not prepared for the wrenching feeling in his gut as the skill activated and he found himself standing in the shadow of the steps of the building across from the pile of rubble he’d been standing in.

He staggered, nearly losing his balance. Had it always been so abrupt? He bent double, trying to stop his head from spinning, to calm his suddenly queasy stomach.

“Oh, whoops, wrong shadow. Uh. Hmm. Shadow step?”

It was only a little easier the second time, which was no comfort at all as the sword looked up to find he had been sent to the shadows of a trio of mages standing back to back to back, currently firing up countermagics as sheets of fire reigned down upon them from above.

“Get me out of here!” He yelled, and the [God] said, “Oh dear oh dear oh dear.”

Another wrenching step, and he was now behind the [Wizard] who was still sending lightning down on Arthur and Mei, now huddled behind some rubble which was not quite big enough to cover them.

The [Wizard] whirled around as the sword appeared beside him, snapping out some kind of defensive spell that produced a wall of lightning between the two of them. The [Wizard] retreated without panicking, putting more distance between them.

“Oh I get it now, this is kind of fun huh? Here we go. Shadow Step”

The sword was almost used to it, as he appeared once more in his opponents shadow. He prepared to strike himself, closing his hand into a tight fist.

“Shadow strike.”

His vision went dark, as shadows suffused his whole body, and he rocketed forward into the [Wizard], both arms swinging forward without him willing them to do so.

The [Wizard] exploded into a cloud of wet flesh and splinters of bone.

“WOW. That was crazy! I totally get why people are into swords now. Let’s do that again!!”

“Shadow step.”

He was back in the center of the three [wizards], this time the [God] didn’t hesitate to use the rest of the sword’s skills.

It was over very quickly.

“ANYONE ELSE WANT SOME???” The [God’s] voice roared in his ears.

The sword turned, searching for more enemies. This was strange. But it was right.

Wasn’t it?

Then his legs gave out.

Sometime later, the lightning and fire ceased, and heard the shouts and yells of medics and clean up crews, salvaging what they could.

Cadmarius found him lying on his back, staring up at the now clear afternoon sky.

Not quite clear. There was a blue tint at the corners of his vision that never went away regardless of how he turned his head.

“What happened?” Cadmarius asked.

“[God] downstairs,” the sword mumbled, “Supposed to be quiet. You’ll wake him up.”

Cadmarius’ eyes widened. “Francois,” he said, eyes staring directly into the swords’ own. “Release him at once.”

“Why?” The [God] asked, apparently also audible to Cadmarius. “He’s great. I’m thinking about making him an [Avatar], it’s not like he likes having a body anyway.”

“Now,” Cadmarius said flatly.

The sword felt that it had suddenly become much warmer than it was before.

“Ok, ok,” the [God] said. “I’m going going gone. Thanks Eclipse! That was fun. We make a great team. Lets do it again soon.”

“Go.” Cadmarius had never sounded so serious to the sword.

“I’m out! I’m going! Yeesh! It’s not my fault you made so much noise! Oh, and tell Arthur his next door neighbor told him to see a sleep doctor. He snores like a fifty year old alcoholic.”

The blue light at the edges of his vision faded.

Then his eyes were full again from the light of Status.

Congratulations on your rampage. You’ve acquired new skill Corona.